Bithumb hacked for $19 million by insiders with funds already sent to other exchanges

Bithumb, the largest cryptocurrency exchange in South Korea, was hacked on Friday. More than 3 million EOS (~$12.7 million) and 20 million XRP (~$6.2 million) appears to be stolen. In an official statement, Bithumb said that all the stolen cryptocurrency is owned by Bithumb. The exchange stated that users' funds are under the protection of cold wallets.

Bithumb claimed that as a result of an internal inspection, "it is judged that the incident is an accident involving insiders." The exchange is already conducting investigations with Korea Internet & Security Agency, Cyber Police Agency and security companies.

The insider hack of Bithumb comes less than one year after another hack of the exchange on June 2018. In that incident, hackers stole $31 million from the exchange's hot wallets. Bithumb was eventually able to recover some funds, but hackers still got away with $17 million. In March, Bithumb announced that it plans to cut its 310-member staff by up to 50%.

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According to blockchain security company PeckShield, the stolen EOS was sent rapidly to a number of other exchanges. The largest amount of EOS was sent to EXMO, followed by Huobi and Changelly. One of the exchanges to which funds were sent, ChangeNOW issued the following statement: "We are working in close cooperation with Bithumb and all participants of the investigation. $EOS payins have been temporarily disabled."

The full distribution of where the stolen EOS funds were sent can be seen below.

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Larry joined crypto research full time in early 2017 and has expertise in capital markets, market structure and early stage DeFi companies/protocols and token economics. He has a background in economics and finance.